Through Theatre versus Oppression I have been working in Africa since 2007.

Our project with COBURWAS a youth organisation aimed at creating positive change for refugees in the Kyangwali refugee camp, came out of the blue. It began a voyage of discovery in both TVO’s teams and the COBURWAS community about the change that applied theatre techniques can bring.

In 2011 we established the New Hope Theatre group: a group using applied theatre methods run by and for refugees.

Theatre versus Oppression continued to train the group annually in new methods which they could apply and develop to best suit their needs.

Their work has been so popular and effective as a way of creating debate and exploring ingrained conflicts that it has reached other camps in the area and across the border to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

They now have a youth theatre group and applied theatre techniques are taught in schools.